Closet

Closet envy: Step inside the world of Joe Mimran

2. How did you become interested in fashion? “My mom was a couturier, and she used to have a business that she ran out of the house. So I grew up with a sewing machine running all the time and a mannequin covered with fabrics, and I just always loved it. I was 11 years old when I asked her to make me a houndstooth suit.”

3.Where do you find fashion inspiration? “There is a zeitgeist out there that moves everything to do with style and taste, and it’s a matter of picking up on it.”

4. How do you organize your closet? “It’s all colour-coordinated because it helps me figure out interesting combinations.”

5. How do you decide what to wear in the morning? “With as many colour and fashion trends that I’m dealing with on a daily basis, I’ve got to make my own dressing a bit simplistic and very uniform-driven. And I think that’s why I like a white shirt: It’s my apron, my lab coat. I wear it every single day when I go into work, and I never tire of it.”

6. How do you play with fashion? “I can take my white shirt and my navy or grey pants uniform and pop in some blue, yellow, kelly green, red or fuchsia. It’s a bold statement because a lot of men can’t wear colour.”

8.Are attitudes toward men and fashion changing? “It’s okay now to be interested in fashion in North America if you are male. It wasn’t okay for a long time.”

9. Can men be as creative as women with fashion? “Fashion for men moves in millimetres. The seam on a shoe is going to move a millimetre, the lapel size is going to move by millimetres, the shoulder points are going to move by millimetres; everything moves very slowly in men’s fashions and very subtly. That said, I think it’s a great time for men’s fashion. There is more happening today than there has been in 30 years.”